Playrooms Are Cool
Before I had children I never thought I would have so many toys just for one kid. Friends and family enjoy gifting my little girl with toys. I am forever thankful for their generosity, but I have to put them somewhere.
The migration of toys started in the nursery then spread to my bedroom. Next they encroached into a corner of the living room. The toys grew too much for the living room. Finally they made their way into a space that is supposed to be a formal living area which we have used as a library. Now they have even moved into our formal dining area.
All my bedrooms are upstairs, but we don’t hang out there much during the day. I like being able to see my kiddos from the kitchen and our living room. So half of the downstairs is now a play area and I love it.
We recently replaced the formal dining table with a futon and a t.v. I don’t know why this made me so happy. I love hanging out in there with my kids. Of course, there is more I want to do to the room like curtains on the back windows, wall art, change the lighting, and have better storage for the small toys.
Having a designated area for the toys has kept my regular living room more clean and a retreat for me at the end of the day. Now I just need to teach my 2 year old how to pick her toys up every night. If she doesn’t fully understand how to clean up by the time she is a preschooler, then I am going to try Amelia’s tips on How to Teach Your Preschooler to Pick Up Their Toys.
I understand that I am lucky to have some extra space in my house to create a play area. It seems like such a necessity. You need space to store toys and kids need a place to play and be a kid.
Almost every house that I have been to that has a play area is fun. So I created my own. One day I will reclaim the dining room and library, but until then my little kiddos rule the room.
I don’t have any great insight about organizing toys or creative ways to make your playroom more fun. I just know that having a play area is cool.
How about you? Have you made a designated play area? Did you ever think you would have one?
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My big one is still talking about the nursery becoming one big playroom. He’s waiting for the baby to be old enough to move in with him and share the bunk beds. It’s funny that he’s so anxious to do this. Wonder what he finds exciting about the idea, what’s motivating him to want to do this…
We have a playroom also. I never thought we would need an entire room devoted to just toys, but with 3 kids with lots of toys it is a necessity. It was supposed to be a “t.v.” room when we bought the house, but it just makes more sense to keep the toys in there also. An added bonus is that my kids’ rooms stay clean since there are no toys kept in them.
Organizing the playroom has been a bit of an “obsession” for me. We have tried everything from a very large box to just throw all the toys into (can never find the needed toy), to those shelves with the colorful plastic bins for toys (too cluttered looking- and easy to dump out!). After living here for over 3 years, I finally had a plan. I found two large bookcases with cabinets on the bottom from craigslist and a short window box/cubby (also on craigslist) to store their toys in. I bought canvas bins from Target to put on the shelves and each one has a different “theme” of toys in it (like blocks, action figures, little people). We labeled each bin with tags and stickers from my long neglected scrapbooking stash. My kids love being able to find what they need and clean up is fun for them too. They like figuring out which bin to put each toy back into. Toys do migrate downstairs into the family room at times, so I keep a large wicker basket downstairs to throw them all into. I take it upstairs and empty it every few days.
I am all for doing what makes the most sense for your family. The kids will be grown one day (sooner than we want) and the toys will all be gone. I am enjoying it while I can, even if I have to trip over a few toys.
Our front living room & attached dining area is the playroom for the kids, to the point where our large armoire is in that room too, filled with the kids’ clothes. (I started off having the kids’ clothes in their rooms but all the transfer back & forth seemed unnecessary since the diaper changing station is in the play area as well.)
Stephanie’s different categories for the toys works well for a friend of mine, too. When my kids are older, we’ll try that. We have the colored bin shelf too, and yes, they dump out everything every chance they get. It’s pretty annoying. But Stephanie is right – now is the time to enjoy our kids. We can have clean homes when we’re empty nesters.
A few months back we decided to move our kids into the same bedroom so that we could make one bedroom into a playroom. It’s been extremely nice having all of the toys in one room, and both the kids and I have enjoyed it. It’s not yet organized and decorated the way I’d like, but we do the same thing Stephanie mentioned and label baskets/bins with a picture + word for that type of toy and it’s really helped my kids out!
We don’t have a playroom, but are lucky enough to have built-ins all the way across our living room. All of the kids toys (okay, most of the toys) fit into the cabinets at the end of the day, giving me an adult room after the kids are asleep. In our new house, it is much the same. We are planning on finishing the attic and creating a second living area for the kids. That will be so awesome!